Year: 2023

Biden White House proposes major expansion of the regulations governing commercial space

9:23 am

We’re here to help you! The Biden White House yesterday proposed a major expansion of the regulations that govern commercial space, with the changes aimed at splitting all regulation within the Transportaion and Commerce Departments, but expand the regulations to so as to increase the power of the government over all future activitives, from rockets to spacecraft to space stations.

According to the White House’s statement [pdf]:

Specifically, this proposal would amend 51 U.S.C. 50902 to define a “human space flight vehicle” as a vehicle, including a launch vehicle or reentry vehicle, habitat, or other object, built to operate in suborbital trajectory or outer space, including on a celestial body, with a human being on board. A license would then be required for a citizen of the United States to operate a human space flight vehicle in outer space. (51 U.S.C. 50904).

DOT would authorize the operation of a human space flight vehicle consistent with public health and safety, safety of property, space sustainability, international obligations of the United States, and national security, foreign policy, and other national interests of the United States. (51 U.S.C. 50905). This proposal adds “space sustainability” and “other national interests” to DOT’s current authority. Including “space sustainability” would allow DOT to include debris mitigation and require measures to protect the sustainable use of outer space in their regulations, to include the mitigation and remediation of orbital debris and consideration of impacts to the space operational environment. [emphasis mine]

Essentially, these new rules — purposely written to be vague — will allow the government to forbid any activity in space by private citizens it chooses to forbid. No private space station could launch without government approval, which will also include the government’s own determination that the station will be operatied safely. Once launched, the vagueness of these regulations will soon allow mission creep so that every new activity in space will soon fall under its review.

Since no one in the government is qualified to supervise things like this, in the end politics and the abuse of power will be the rule.

Moreover, by what constitutional right does the federal government have to supervise the work of all space companies, in all things? It doesn’t have that right, and in fact the Constitution was written expressly to forbid it from attempting such a thing. The Constitution however is nothing more than fish wrap in modern America.

Note that most other news reports on this proposal are making it sound as nothing more than a simple revision of the law to better organize the regulatory system. The assumption is always that the government is all-knowing and all-seeing, and has the ability to act as school teacher for everyone else.

Initially we can expect these regulations will be followed with good faith, but such things never last. Given time they will end up squelching freedom in space and the entire American effort to colonize the solar system. And should any American colony become reasonably self-sufficient under these rules (something not likely), the rules guarantee that they will revolt from American rule as quickly as possible.

At this moment this proposal is simply that. Congress needs to review it and decide if it wishes to do as the Biden White House proposes. Though it is unlikely it will pass as written, it is also likely that our present Congress will simply reword it to accept this expansion of power, in some manner.

14 comments

China launches ocean observation satellite

8:52 am

China today successfully launched what it claimed was the first of a new generation of ocean observation satellites, its Long March 2C rocket lifting off from its Jiuquan spaceport in northwest China.

No word on where the rocket’s lower stages, which use toxic hypergolic fuels, crashed inside China.

The leaders in the 2023 launch race:

83 SpaceX
52 China
14 Russia
7 Rocket Lab
7 India

American private enterprise still leads China 95 to 52 in successful launches, and the entire world combined 95 to 81. SpaceX by itself is still leads the rest of the world (excluding American companies) 83 to 81.

2 comments

On the radio

6:47 pm

Tomorrow (November 16) during the 5 to 6 pm (Central) time slot I will be appearing with Robert Pratt of Pratt on Texas for a 30-minute interview, updating his Texas audience on commercial space matters in Texas. Obviously, SpaceX’s Starship/Superheavy was high on the list.

You can listen live here or here. The podcast is now available here. I have also embedded below the fold.
» Read more

0 comments

November 15, 2023 Quick space links

4:29 pm

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay.

 

 

5 comments

The right’s general lack of unity and support

1:29 pm

The right's circular firing squad
The right’s approach to its own side.

Rather than write another depressing essay detailing the uniform madness on the left, with its eager desire to censor, blacklist, and imprison its opponents — now topped by a desire to see Jews slaughtered — I think I will let a short essay by Mark Judge speak for me:

The Left uplifts its artists. Why doesn’t the Right?

Key quote:

When a gifted young singer or filmmaker emerges on the left, the entire media ecosystem works in tandem to lift that person up. They are noticed in Vanity Fair, the Hollywood Reporter, the Washington Post, and the New York Times. There are profiles on the morning shows, grants and financial support. Everybody pulls in one direction.

On the right, it is almost the opposite effect. “There is a lot of gatekeeping,” Roland tells me. “Everyone is protecting their own turf.” Conservative media companies want to promote their own product. Whereas on the left everyone lends a hand to uplift talent, on the right there is more of an effort to ignore it.

Judge notes this pattern based on his own experience, as well as that of a conservative filmmaker he interviews. Judge, a journalist and author, became well known when he was accused falsely during the Kavanaugh hearings of participating in the left’s made-up rape story. Since then his career has moved forward, but as he so correctly notes, not with the kind of support you’d think he should get from the right.

I say he is correct because like him and that filmmaker, I have had the same experience now for decades. » Read more

31 comments

FAA and Fish & Wildlife approve further launches of Starship/Superheav at Boca Chica

12:35 pm

Starship/Superheavy flight plan for first orbital flight
The April Starship/Superheavy flight plan. Click for original image.
The slightly revised flight plan for flight two can be found here.

Starship stacked on Superheavy, September 5, 2023
Starship stacked on Superheavy, September 5, 2023,
when Elon Musk said it was ready for launch

UPDATE: The FAA has now issued the launch licence [pdf]. Note it adds that the FAA and Fish & Wildlife have imposed new requirements (as noted in the announcements below) on SpaceX on this and future launches, all of which will have to be reviewed after each launch.

Original post:
————————-
Both the FAA and the Fish & Wildlife department of the Interior Departiment today released their completed investigations of the environmental impacts created by the first test launch of SpaceX’s Starship/Superheavy rocket in April 2023, and (not surprisingly) concluded that the launch did no harm, and that a second launch can be allowed.

The FAA report can be found here [pdf]. The Fish & Wildlife report can be found here [pdf]. Both essentially come to the same conclusion — though in minute detail — that Fish and Wildlife had determined in April 2023, only a week after that first test launch.

No debris was found on lands belonging to the refuge itself, but the agency said debris was spread out over 385 acres belonging to SpaceX and Boca Chica State Park. A fire covering 3.5 acres also started south of the pad on state park land, but the Fish and Wildlife Service didn’t state what caused the fire or how long it burned.

There was no evidence, though, that the launch and debris it created harmed wildlife. “At this time, no dead birds or wildlife have been found on refuge-owned or managed lands,” the agency said. [emphasis mine]

In other words, the investigation for the past seven months was merely to complete the paperwork, in detail, for these obvious conclusions then.

As part of the FAA action today, it also issued range restrictions for a November 17, 2023 test launch at Boca Chica. Though there is no word yet of the issuance of an actual launch license, it appears one will be issued, and SpaceX is prepared for launch that day, with a 2.5 hourlong launch window, opening at 7 am (Central). SpaceX has already announced that its live stream will begin about 30 minutes before launch, at this link as well as on X.

Hat tip to BtB’s stringer Jay and my reader Jestor Naybor for these links.

16 comments

Lava/ice eruptions on Mars

11:49 am

Lava/ice eruptions on Mars
Click for original image.

Cool image time! The picture to the right, cropped, reduced, and sharpened to post here, was taken on August 1, 2023 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). Labeled by the science team as showing “possible lava-ice interaction,” the photo features some pimply-looking mounds that, though round like craters, sit above the surrounding landscape like small volcanoes.

That these are likely not ancient pedestal impact craters that now sit higher because their material is packed and can resist erosion is illustrated by the bridge-like mound in the lower right. This mound was likely once solid, but its north and south sections have disappeared, either by erosion or sublimation. If formed by an impact the mound would have had a depression in its top center, and would have only eroded outside the rim.
» Read more

0 comments

Gamma ray burst 1.9 billion light years away was powerful enough to affect Earth’s atmosphere

9:34 am

One of the most powerful gamma ray bursts (GRBs) ever detected was so powerful that despite occurring about 1.9 billion light years away it was powerful enough to affect Earth’s atmosphere.

On 9 October 2022, for 7 minutes, high energy photons from a gigantic explosion 1.9 billion light-years away toasted one side of Earth as never before observed. The event, called a gamma ray burst (GRB), was 70 times brighter than the previous record holder. But what astronomers dub the “BOAT”—the brightest of all time—did more than provide a light show spanning the electromagnetic spectrum. It also ionized atoms across the ionosphere, which spans from 50 to 1000 kilometers in altitude, researchers say. The findings highlight the faint but real risk of a closer burst destroying Earth’s protective ozone layer.

“It was such a massive event, it affected all levels of the atmosphere,” says solar physicist Laura Hayes of the European Space Agency (ESA).

None of these consequences were harmful or even noticeable to any life on Earth, but the data proved without question that a GRB close by within the Milky Way could have been the cause of one or more of the past extinction events. It also proved that a future such nearby explosion could do the same again.

At present astronomers think that GRBs are caused either by the collapse of a massive star into a black hole, during a supernovae event, or by the merger of two neutron stars. Neither conclusion is proved as yet, though the evidence has eliminated most other theories.

For astronomers this GRB was significant because its strength allowed many different telescopes and detectors to record it, in many different wavelengths. Having such a wealth of information helps them better figure out what happened when the burst occurred.

2 comments

Japan to spend $6.6 billion over ten years to develop its space industry

9:19 am

The Japanese government has created a new $6.6 billion fund that it will provide to its space agency JAXA, spread out over the next ten years, to help develop the country’s commercial space industry.

The very short article at the link provides little additional information. For example, will JAXA be required to act merely as a customer, buying services from competing private companies, or will it be allowed to use this money to create its own projects that it designs, builds, and owns?

The difference is fundamental. Presently JAXA functions like NASA had for decades, partnering with only a handful of big space companies (Mitsubishi for example) to build its own government rockets and spaceships. The results have been comparable to NASA prior to 2010: Little gets built and whatever is built is overbudget and far behind schedule.

Since NASA accepted the idea of capitalism in space, where it no longer builds or owns much but relies on private enterprise to get it done, things have moved fast. Similarly, India and China have followed suit, and both are getting similar good results.

The unanswered question from this story is whether Japan has finally taken the leap to do it as well. Making this transition can be politically difficult, because the space agencies and big space contractors fight to protect their turf. It is not clear if the Japanese government is willing to fight that battle.

If it doesn’t, however, Japan will continue to be a backwater in space, like Russia,as the rest of the world’s space-faring nations increasingly turn to private enterprise, competition, and (most of all) freedom to get results.

0 comments

Scientists: More evidence cosmic rays come from nearby supernova remnants

9:07 am

The uncertainty of science: According to high energy data from an instrument on ISS, astronomers found more evidence that the cosmic rays that enter our solar system likely come from nearby supernova remnants.

Current theory posits that the aftermath of supernovae (exploding stars), called supernova remnants, produce these high energy electrons, which are a specific type of cosmic ray. Electrons lose energy very quickly after leaving their source, so the rare electrons arriving at CALET with high energy are believed to originate in supernova remnants that are relatively nearby (on a cosmic scale), Cannady explains.

The study’s results are “a strong indicator that the paradigm that we have for understanding these high-energy electrons—that they come from supernova remnants and that they are accelerated the way that we think they are—is correct,” Cannady says. The findings “give insight into what’s going on in these supernova remnants, and offer a way to understand the galaxy and these sources in the galaxy better.”

The results however do not prove this. Nor do they eliminate the possibility that cosmic rays might also come from other sources outside our galaxy. At present the data is simply too uncertain.

0 comments
1 … 22 23 24 25 26 … 196